An Underworldliness
for Aileen Winter MostelMaybe a maker makes
another out—by the mark
of the mechanism—
keyboard cabaret—
clown in love with his club
(one foot's spondee).
I turned it over
in my sleeping head—
that fallow feeling—
pillow a numbset's
handskull till
from the fidgeting synapses
rose an REM of
ultivated answer—
all-but-seeing
eye on a stem—the
glancer born to blow
by way of aneurysm—
at what altitude or depth,
what certitude or asterisk,
nobody seeing
could see through—
the star was visibly
newfangled, brimming
from a wave or cup one was
to drain or fill—who knew?
Sidewise it angled, and shone up.
About the Author
Heather McHugh is author of The Father of the Predicaments, Hinge and Sign, and most recently, Upgraded to Serious. The Milliman Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington, Seattle, she was awarded a MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant in September 2009.
